Tobacco cutting machine having moisture drying elements



U. RIEGGER July 10, 1956 TOBACCO CUTTING MACHINE HAVING MOISTURE DRYING ELEMENTS Filed Aug. 13, 1953 imbm INVENTOR. BYZ/ United States TDBACCO CUTTING MACHINE HAVING MOISTURE DRYENG ELElVfENTS Ulrich Riegger, Wentorf, Post .Reinbek, Germany, assignor to Kurt Korber & Co. K. G., Hamburg-Bergedorf, Germany Application August 13, 1953, Serial No. 374,000 Claims priority, application Germany October '30, 1952 6 Claims. (Cl. 146-120) The invention relates to a tobacco cutting machine with an upper mouthpiece jaw and a lower mouthpiece jaw through which flows the tobacco leaves to be cut, and with a rotary knife head in front of the tobacco mouthpiece, carrying several knives.

The tobacco leaves to be cut are filled into the tobacco cutting machine and fed towards the mouthpiece for cutting. As'is known the leaves are moistened before filling into the machine and according to the type of tobacco and the purpose of use are more or less impregnated. When the tobaccocutting machine has been in operation for several hours it may happen that certain parts of the tobacco cutting machine, especially the parts over which the tobacco flows, become coated with a juice due to the impregnation of the leaves and this may lead to operational disturbance. In order that the feed of the leaves shall not be liable to interruption and the cutting of the tobacco shall continue regularly, care must be taken that the successively forming juice layers shall be removed or the production of a juice layer shall be prevented from the beginning. The parts at which the juice layer are mainly formed are, besides the upper and lower mouthpiece jaws, especially the forward parts of the knives or those parts which lie near the knife edges or the forward parts of the knife head.

In order to avoid this layer formation according to the invention preferably the mouthpiece jaws and/ or the forward parts of the knives on the knife and head or those parts which lie at the level of the knife edges, are heated, and it is also possible to effect the heating of the mouthpiece jaws separately.

To heat the said parts, electric resistance heaters of known kind are preferably employed, which are inserted for this purpose into bores in the jaws or in the supporting body disposed for example below the knives. The temperature of these heaters should however be so chosen that the juice coming on them flows off on its own or can be easily brushed off by the following tobacco. It has been found that temperatures of about 80 to 105 can be advantageously employed, and that the temperature is chosen according to the composition of the impregnant used in each case. By this temperature there is obtained in the first place an evaporation of the outer layer (upper surface) of the moisture present in the juice so that the small remaining components of the juice left behind as a residue can be carried forward by the following tobacco, on the other hand no warming of the outer juice layer can occur by the heating of the outer surface of the wall; hardening or layer formation is therefore avoided.

It might be assumed that the said temperatures are too high for the tobacco. As against this it must be stated however that the resistances can be controlled or switched off when required by hand or automatically in known manner; thereby a uniform temperature is maintained which does not penetrate into the mass of the tobacco.

The invention is described in the form of one constructional example on the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows a section through the mouthpiece and Two 2 through part of the knife head of a tobacco cutting machine, and

Fig. 2 shows the electric circuit applicable to Fig. 1. The tobacco flows-in the direction of the arrows from a container, not shown, of a tobacco cutting machine,

for example between an upper presser roller 1 and a lower roller 2 which are driven in appropriate manner, into the mouthpiece 3 which is defined above and below by the mouthpiece jaws 4 and 5. Bores 6, 7 or 6', 7' are provided in these jaws, of Which for example the upper jaw can be movably arranged, and for example pairs of rod-like heating resistors 8, 9 or 8', 9 are inserted in these bores, by which in particular outer surfaces of the mouthpiece jaws 4 and 5 are heated on the parts nearest to the tobacco, in order to avoid the deposition of the uice.

A rotary knife head 11 on a shaft 10 runs in front of the mouthpiece 3 and, in known manner, knives 12 are secured to the periphery of the head, which cut the tobacco leaving the mouthpiece into theso called tobacco shreds. Tranverse-bars 13 are preferably provided below the knives, having a channel-shaped recess 14 for leading off the cut tobacco. Within each transverse bar 13 there is providedin each case, for example, a resistance 15 in order to heat, according to the'invention, the outer surface of the recess, the adjacent guide-off strip 16, the adjacent forward parts of the knives and also for example the surface 17 of the cover plate 18. Thereby the coating or encrustation of these parts also by the tobacco juice'is hindered.

The control of the electric circuits is eifected in known manner. Asshown-in Fig. -2 the resistances 8, 9, 8', 9' and 15' are either connected in parallel or series, the parallel connection being preferred in order that, on the failure of one resistance, the whole current circuit shall not be broken. A main switch 19 and three individual switches 20, 21 and 22 (which may be automatic temperature controlled devices) are provided for connecting or disconnecting the three resistance units 8, 9; 8', 9' and 15, as well as appropriate indicator lamps. Current is fed to the resistances 15 by means of slip rings as indicated.

The feed of current can be effected by a two-Wire direct current or single-phase alternating current. However it is also possible with correspondingly connected resistances, to feed both the fixed resistances S, 9, 8, 9 in the mouthpiece 3 as also the resistances 15 in the knife head by threeor multi-phase alternating current.

What I claim is:

l. In a tobacco cutting machine, upper and lower tobacco conveying rollers, a mouthpiece comprising upper and lower mouthpiece jaw bodies, and through which mouthpiece the tobacco to be cut is conveyed by said upper and lower rollers, which are mounted adjacent one end of said mouthpiece, a rotary shaft mounted in spaced relation from the other end of said mouthpiece and having fixedly secured thereon a cutter head for rotation with said shaft, a plurality of knives mounted on the circumference of said cutter head and arranged with their cutting edges to move past said other end of said mouthpiece to cut the tobacco when the latter leaves said mouthpiece, and means comprising electric heating elements positioned within said mouthpiece jaw bodies for heating the latter to a temperature at which an adherence of the juice produced during the cutting of the tobacco, owing to its moisture content, to the jaws is prevented.

2. In a tobacco cutting machine, upper and lower tobacco conveying rollers, a mouthpiece comprising upper and lower mouthpiece jaw bodies, and through which mouthpiece the tobacco to be cut is conveyed by said upper and lower rollers, which are mounted adjacent one end of said mouthpiece, a rotary shaft mounted in spaced relation from the other end of said mouthpiece and having fixedly secured thereon a cutter head for rotation with said shaft, a plurality of knives mounted on the circumference of said cutter head and arranged with their cutting edges to move past said other endof said mouthpiece to cut the tobacco when the latter leaves said mouthpiece, said knives being supported adjacent their cutting edges by transverse bars attached to said cutter head, and means comprising electric heating elements positioned within said mouthpiece jaw bodies and also within said transverse bars for heating said jaws and knives, respectively, to a temperature at which an adherence of the juice produced during the cutting of the tobacco, owing to its moisture content, to the jaws and the knives is prevented.

3. In a tobacco cutting machine, upper and lower tobacco conveying rollers, a mouthpiece comprising upper and lower mouthpiece jaw bodies, and through which mouthpiece the tobacco to be cut is conveyed by said upper and lower rollers, which are mounted adjacent one end of said mouthpiece, a rotary shaft mounted in spaced relation from the other end of said mouthpiece and having fixedly secured thereon a cutter head for rotation with said shaft, a plurality of knives mounted on the circumference of said cutter head and arranged with their cutting edges to move past said other end of said mouthpiece to cut the tobacco when the latter leaves said mouthpiece, and means comprising electric heating elements positioned within said mouthpiece jaw bodies for heating the latter to a temperature of between 80 to 105 C. at which an adherence of the juice produced during the cutting of the tobacco, owing to its moisture content, to the jaws is prevented.

4. In a tobacco cutting machine, upper and lower tobacco conveying rollers, a mouthpiece comprising upper and lower mouthpiece jaw bodies, and through which mouthpiece the tobacco to be cut is conveyed by said upper and lower rollers which are mounted adjacent one end of said mouthpiece, a rotaryshaft mounted in spaced relation from the other end of said mouthpiece and having fixedly secured thereon a cutter head for rotation with said shaft, a plurality of knives mounted on the circumference of said cutter head and arranged with their cutting edges to move past said other end of said mouthpiece to cut the tobacco when the latter leaves said mouth piece, said knives being supported adjacent their cutting edges by transverse bars attached to said cutter head, and means comprising electric heating elements positioned within said mouthpiece jaw bodies and also within said transverse bars for heating said jaws and knives, respectively, to a temperature of between to C. at which an adherence of the juice produced during the cutting of the tobacco, owing to its moisture content, to the jaws and the knives is prevented.

5. A tobacco cutting machine according to claim 1, in which said upper and lower jaw bodies of said mouthpiece are provided with bores in which said electric heating elements are positioned.

6. A tobacco cutting machine according to claim 2, in which said transverse bars on the cutter head are provided with bores extending lengthwise of said bars, said heating elements being positioned in said bores.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,314,734 Ptasnik Mar. 23, 1943 2,443,453 Halstead June 15, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS 12,221/28 Australia Mar. 12, 1928 

